Mulvaney: Concerned about ?legal immigration?

One of a number of issues that Congressional Republicans and Democrats have been jousting over continues to be how the country handles the issue of immigration reform. Appearing on MSNBC Monday morning, 5th District Congressman Mick Mulvaney said he is optimistic that an agreement is forthcoming on the issue and the dialogue has jelled around three general areas.?

Mick Mulvaney

??Border security, possibly as a trigger before anything else happens; fixing legal immigration, allowing more people to come here legally to work in our farms, to work in our hotel industry and so forth; and also dealing with the 11 million (undocumented aliens) who are here already.?

Mulvaney was one of six Tea Party-aligned House members who signed a letter expressing support for Sen. Rand Paul?s three-pronged immigration reform: expansion of legal immigration, ensuring border security, and a way to ?reasonably address? those already living in the U.S. who arrived illegally.

He says discussion on immigration reform cannot be limited to illegal immigration. Mulvaney says the red tape involved in legal immigration is a strong issue, especially in South Carolina, where agriculture is an important component of the state?s economy and migrant labor is important.

?Illegal immigration in terms of having a bunch of folks who are here in an undocumented fashion is not a big deal where I?m from. Having folks come to work in agriculture is. Right now my farmers can?t get the people to work. Small businesses are going out of business because of the bureaucracy involved in getting legal migrant workers into this country.?

Mulvaney says the red tape that causes delays is hurting agribusiness in South Carolina because the enterprise of agriculture is time-sensitive.

?You need them now to pick the peach crop in July, but if it takes you eight months to get the paper work finished they?re not here in time to pick that particular crop. The agriculture business is a very seasonal, very timely business and you drive up and down the roads in South Carolina now and see the packing facilities that have closed simply because we were unable to get folks to come to work and pick those crops.?

Mulvaney says another facet of legal immigration is making sure those immigrants who want to come to the U.S. to study, to cultivate their ideas, become entrepreneurs, and job creators can do so because they are important in growing the nation?s economy.

?We need to figure out a way to encourage the entrepreneurs to come here and stay here. The House has a?STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)?visa bill, I think late last year or early this year, so we are making steps in that direction,? he told the Morning Joe panel,??We are talking about things beyond ?just build the darn fence? and deporting people.?

Source: http://www.southcarolinaradionetwork.com/2013/03/26/mulvaney-concerned-about-legal-immigration/

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